The International Criminal Court rejected the arguments presented by the government of Nicolás Maduro against the resumption of the investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela. The ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, was authorized this Friday to continue with the investigations as part of the case that was opened in November 2021.
The ICC Appeals Chamber unanimously rejected the arguments presented by the Venezuelan socialist authorities, who stated that crimes against humanity in Venezuela were non-existent and that the reported cases were “incidents” that were supposedly being investigated by national courts. Thus, it allowed the resumption of the investigation.
In November 2021, the ICC prosecutor’s office announced the opening of a formal investigation based on a 2018 referral from Peru, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile and Paraguay. These countries denounced alleged crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela since February 12, 2014.
Despite the arguments presented by the Venezuelan government, which stated that the national justice system was already carrying out investigations, the ICC considered that the internal criminal processes in Caracas did not adequately reflect the scope of the case and that there were periods of unexplained inactivity.
Prosecutor Karim Khan, responding to Caracas’ claims, noted that the investigation was in a preliminary phase and that it was unreasonable to expect suspects to be identified or the true scope of the case to be established at that stage.
Now, with the ICC’s decision, it will continue to seek evidence related to alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela, marking a significant step in the international judicial process on this issue.
The ICC is “politicized,” according to Venezuela
The executive vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, denounced what she considers the “politicization of the International Criminal Court (ICC),” after the court’s decision.
In statements offered to the state channel VTV, he expressed his concern about what he considers an instrumentalization of international justice to supposedly attack the government of Nicolás Maduro and its institutions.
“”It is a clearly politicized case and where international justice is intended to be instrumentalized to attack Venezuela, its high authorities, our Bolivarian National Armed Forces, our security agencies that have been on the front line in defense of peace. and tranquility of our Republic,” he said.
He also assured that crimes against humanity have never been committed in the country and that the Venezuelan justice system is “capable” to investigate and resolve any type of crime, but none, according to him, are not related to those provided for in the Rome Statute. .
Rodríguez assured that only 20% of the information provided by the Chavista regime was taken into consideration to dismiss the appeal.
“The truth is that crimes against humanity have never been committed here and that the Venezuelan justice system has been on the front line for the investigation and resolution of cases in which some type of crime has been committed, but that they have nothing “to do with crimes provided for in the Rome Statute or crimes against humanity,” he assured.
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